Soundgarden Reveal Preview of ‘Avengers’ Single ‘Live to Rise’

The calendar might say it’s spring, but it’s time to break out your flannel, because Soundgarden have released a teaser video for ‘Live to Rise,’ the first single from the soundtrack to the summer blockbuster-in-waiting ‘The Avengers.’ The full track will reportedly be on sale May 1.

This actually takes us back on a couple of levels. First, obviously, because it’s new Soundgarden song, but the other reason is that we have what was once a tentpole band releasing a new song on the soundtrack to a tentpole movie.

This was standard operating procedure for well over a decade, turning some unlikely soundtracks into monster hits (‘Twister,’ for one, thanks to the inclusion of Van Halen‘s ‘Humans Being’). The trend died toward the end of the ’90s as bands began asking for upwards of $500,000 in advance, since giving a good song to a soundtrack often meant fewer sales of the band’s next album down the road. Soundtrack supervisors stopped paying the high fees, bands held on to their songs, and not long after that, soundtracks went straight to hell. It’s nice to see both Soundgarden and soundtracks making a comeback here.

As for the track, well, it’s only 22 seconds long, but those 22 seconds sound like pure ‘Superunknown’ riffage, even down to the crisp snare drum hits that album boasted. It’s a bit more mannered than the band was then, but hey, they’re 20 years older, and to paraphrase Chrissie Hynde, time is the ultimate avenger. See what we did there? Yes, you can slap us now.